Larry Coryell, “Godfather of Fusion” is one of the most influential guitar players of the 20th Century and beyond. His invention of jazz-rock electric guitar playing in the 1960s, was revolutionary and spurred an entire fusion movement that came of age in the 1970’s. He has recorded over 100 albums and performed with Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cobham and gave lessons to Al Di Meola. Larry truly is in the jazz history books for his innovative guitar approach as well as an author of many music books, including an autobiography.
In the big picture I came late to the party concerning Larry and his music, having met him at the end of his life. As a young guitarist in the 70’s I was very influenced by the British Invasion including instrumental music, like Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer and Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone from the Sun”. In retrospect I wish I had been more exposed to Larry’s music as well. Larry Coryell and the Eleventh House was too sophisticated for a young kid my age. It took some maturity on my part to finally understand and appreciate the complexities of his composing. But of course, now I’m an avid fan of Larry’s music,
In those days Mahavishnu Orchestra was a popular jazz fusion band. Plus, John McLaughlin was coming from his huge success with the 1970 Miles Davis landmark album, Bitches Brew. At the same time, Larry was doing the same kind of music but was overshadowed John’s success. As you read on you will see that Larry and John were good friends who often taught each other guitar riffs in the genre.
As a guitarist myself I was very fortunate to have worked with him in 2016, only months before his passing. Larry came to my recording studio (Jungle Room Studios in Florida) and we worked together all afternoon on songs for my release Brian Tarquin & Company - Orlando In Heaven, a dedication to those who lost there lives at the Pulse night club shooting. We hit it off right away and had a one of kind experience recording.
BTQ: What are your first memoires of music?
Larry: I'm told by my parents that I started playing the piano at the age of four. But first let me preface that by saying I was born, and my name was Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III. My biological father was a guy named Lorenzo Albert Van DeLinder or Larry Alberts for short. He was a jazz pianist, and my mother was interested in him partially because she was hoping that he would teach her how to play piano like he did. After I was born six weeks later, we were in Peoria Illinois. He already had another girlfriend that he had made pregnant, and my mother never saw him again. Consequently, I never was able to garner any information about him at all. I would have liked to see what he looked like number one and number two I would have loved to have been able to hear him play his music. In 1948 my mother married a guy named Jean Coryell who was a great guy and had adopted me, that's how I became Larry Van Delender Coryell.
Galveston Texas is where I was born in 1943. Then we moved to southeastern Washington at the end of the summer of 1950 to Richland Washington, which was a government company town where the A.D.C. (The Atomic Energy Commission) was employing Jean Coryell to make plutonium for atomic bombs. Fast forward to 1988 when I was in Oshima (Japan) and I'm looking and seeing what happened. I said to myself you better make sure that this stuff never happens again.
I had my eyes on the guitar because it was sexy it was more contemporary. I was just attracted to it, and I didn't have to do any reading. But my hands were too small. I had to wait until I was about fifteen for my hands to get big enough to play. And when they did, I was off to the races! I took lessons from a wonderful jazz guitar teacher in our little town. He gave me enough information so that when I went to the University of Washington in the fall of 1961, I was ready to try to get some gigs to help pay for my college.
BTQ: Larry being in the forefront of Fusion, I was anxious to see what guitarists influenced him as a young musician.
Larry: When I was growing up and changed my approach to the guitar, I initially listened to Barney Kessel, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry and then Johnny Smith, but then I heard Wes Montgomery all bets were off! All the other guys I mentioned are great players, but Wes had brilliant ideas that helped him play his unusual approaches to technique. It was the big thumb that really did it for everybody in my environment including myself. We would just go into rapture when Wes would do the octaves and we just couldn't fathom how he could do it.
Wes came to Seattle around 1963 as the Montgomery brother’s band. I wasn't twenty-one yet, so somebody lent me their ID. I went to a very good jazz club in downtown Seattle. I got in there and I think the first tune they played was something called Black Orchid, kind of a Latin thing. It was incredible and then they did Green Dolphin Street. His thumb was shining! I thought he had or maybe he did, I'll never know, nail polish on. You see that beautiful black hand and then the thumb. This was a good time in his life as he was becoming very popular. And they played Green Dog, I don't remember anything after that. I was so blown away! This was really my first time that I was seeing a consummate jazz performance by a genius. The other time was when I saw Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie, a great moment! Dizzy and bird created the vocabulary for bebop that was in the late thirties, early forties. Barney Kessel told me during WWII all the existing musicians were in Europe or Asia fighting the war and the younger musicians who didn’t go to war stayed in the USA playing. They started this music, Barney said, when we came back, they were playing different stuff.
BTQ: Larry grew up in a unique time for guitar music, probably the best time in our history. During the late 50’s and early 60’s there was such a profound growth in guitar music. He explains how he left college in the mid 60’s in Seattle and migrated to New York.
Larry: Oh, I dropped out and by the time I got to the end of 1964 I wanted to go to New York. I went to the University of the Streets in New York City. The first night I was there I heard the Charles Lloyd Band; I had no idea what they were playing. I had like nothing in my record collection like it. Nothing I had ever heard on the radio or at somebody’s house or in a jam session. In New York it was cutting, and I said I think I'll stay here.
When I first got to New York I was really doing poverty gigs. We couldn't even afford a bass player, just vibes, drums and me at the airport, Crossways Idlewild Inn (before it was renamed JFK). The current hits of the day were “The In Crowd” by Ramsey Lewis that was the number one song in the country and the “Shadow Of Your Smile” by Johnny Mandel. The great Johnny Mandel was just keeping in the tradition of the Great American Songbook. Because there was no bass player, I would have freedom to play whatever I wanted. I started playing some Beatles lines in the middle of a song and then I would play “Can’t Buy Me Love” then to “Straight No Chaser” by Thelonius Monk. It worked. I knew it would work. I wanted to start a movement where we could open our musicality to all kinds of music as long as the ideas that we borrowed from pop music, or other forms were good ideas.
The Beatles were not just a band they were a force. They were like Mother Theresa because they transcended everything. Of course, they were popular with the young people and drew big crowds and sold a lot of records, made a lot of money. However, they also evolved musically to a point that I think was the peak of pop music and pop music has never been the same. I mean look at all the people in jazz or rock from Wes Montgomery to Grant Green to Jeff Beck they all want to play “A Day In The Life”. At the time New York City was a huge melting pot for musicians and new ideas!
BTQ: Larry explains how he played with John McLaughlin and studied Indian